Wednesday, October 31, 2012

HalloNeon

Hurricane Sandy has nixed this year's Halloween Parade, darkened neon all over town and destroyed one of the city's best historic signs (more below). So here's some spooky neon to brighten this post-hurricane Halloween.Though I try not to digress too much from NYC-related subject matter, I just had to make an exception for this little Halloween-themed gem from Detroit. I ran across this while perusing old issues of the Claude Neon News at the New York Public Library. Published for just a few years around 1930, the Claude Neon News showcased the company's work for promotional purposes. The March 1929 issue featured this installation, conceived by Detroit's "city authorities" to "keep motorists and street railway passengers apart." Oh for the days when traffic planners resorted to red neon skull-and-crossbones to keep us safe!

Alas, these little neon Jolly Rogers didn't last long. In July 1929 the Claude Neon News ran a blurb under the headline "Replacing the Skull and Crossbones." Some bureaucratic killjoys apparently decided that a simple neon rectangle would suffice in place of Claude’s more spirited traffic advisory. "The reaction to the Claude Neon skull and crossbone display previously used by the city for the same purpose was that it was a bit too gruesome."

ABOUT

New York Neon is a new book released by W.W. Norton that presents a documentary homage to old neon signs in New York. The primary motivation for this project is to record the significance of these signs as works of design that characterized New York's 20th century streetscapes. This blog will feature occasional news items related to New York's dwindling number of old neon signs, as well as sundry "cutting room floor" items that didn't make it into the book.